7+1 Must Have Mobile Apps

There is only so much you can do with J2ME due to inherent limitations of the platform. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any good applications for Java based mobile phones. Here are my top seven free J2ME applications:

Opera Mini : This is a no-brainer. With about 16 million users Opera Mini is by far the most popular mobile web browser. With Opera Mini you can experience the Full Web even on your mobile phone. When you load a page Opera shows a overview of the page. Using the virtual cursor you can zoom into any section you wish to read. Opera Mini intelligently re-formats webpages into segments that fit into your mobile phone screen width. Opera Mini also helps you save money because every webpage is first compressed at it’s server and then downloaded on your device. This also dramatically speeds up loading time.

twibble : This is for the twitterholics. While there are numerous mobile clients for Twitter, I prefer twibble due to its comprehensive feature list. Besides the basic stuff, twibble supports retweeting, uploading of pictures to twitpic, auto refresh (with vibration alert), integrated timeline and more.
If you aren’t twittering yet you should! And if you are twittering, twibble is one of the best ways to do it from your mobile phone.
[Btw, my twitter id is indyan]

miniFring :  miniFring is a J2ME Instant Messenger Client that supports a host of IM protocols including MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, Twitter, Yahoo and AIM, All your online buddies are displayed in a single integrated buddylist. Unfortunately the java version doesn’t support Voice chat, but even otherwise its probably the most feature packed messenger client available for java phones.

WidSets : With Widsets you can have the best of the web in your pocket. Widsets is a widget client for your mobile. The Widsets online library contains more than 6000 widgets with new widgets being developed everyday. These widgets are as diverse as they come. There is the usual stuff like weather, horoscope and email checker. There are simple RSS feed readers for popular websites like BBC News. Then there are fun and games widgets like Sudoku and TowerBloxx.

Shozu : Shozu is an awesome app that allows you to directly upload photo or video from your mobile phone to a host of online multimedia hosting services. Not only that with Shozu you can also track your friend’s accounts and download their latest uploads, comment on their photos or update your status on multiple social networking websites. Supported services include flickr, Facebook, twitter, Photobucket, Youtube, Photoshop.com, Picasa, Blogger, Livejournal and Wordpress. Email and FTP upload is also supported. The full list is available here.

Strands Social Player : Strands Music player brings the experience of Social Music to your phone. I initially started using just for scobbling my tracks to last.fm but Strands is capable of much more (and as far as I know it’s the only way to scobble to last.fm from a J2ME phone – please let me know if there are other options). It has it’s own Social Music website and Music Recommendation Engine. You can also track what your friends are playing. The “Who’s Listening”  feature lets you discover like-minded people who are listening to the same songs you are playing.

MobilePDF : This application enables you to view PDF files on your mobile phone. You can now access your “mission critical” PDF documents one the move as well as kill time reading e-books anytime, anywhere.

Bonus : Google Maps : This one is actually a hit or miss. While it’s a must have for a traveller, not everyone would find this use for this. But if you ever need to refer to a map, this is the application to try.

Did I miss out any gems? What are your favourite mobile applications? Dont forget to let us know.